I am undecided between two drives. NCIX is having a sale. If I buy a drive, I only have a few days to decide.

One is the 1TB WD Green WD10EARS. I think it's good for normal operation but I'll probably being using XP Pro for a little longer. I understand the only way to have the partition aligned is find a copy of 7 from someone or use WD Align (Paragon Software?)? Anybody have experience using that? I'd probably want to use the app, wdidle3, since the LCC seems to go very high without it. Current price is $65.*

The other drive is a Samsung EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB. It's a legacy drive and has a bit extra storage. I'm leaning toward this drive since it's a better price/GB. It's $75.*

*prices probably change in a few days.

$75 is max. I'd spend on a storage drive right now. Regardless of price/GB.

Any recommendations?

Zero82z

August 2, 2010 01:08 PM

I'd go with the Samsung.

gingerbee

August 2, 2010 01:31 PM

well using xp i would go with the samsung, but i have many WD ears and love them run cool. and the paragon alignment tool works great on every thing i have used it on only thing it has not worked on was a raid setup.

hdvision

August 2, 2010 03:13 PM

another vote for the samsung.

_dangtx_

August 2, 2010 03:31 PM

price wise another vote for the sammy.

technix

August 2, 2010 03:34 PM

Hey, thanks for the replies! I was leaning towards the Samsung for a few reasons. One, the price/gb and less hassle. Also, I read that they tend to run 5 degrees cooler than the WD Green although the WD runs at idle at 2.8w compared to 4.8w. Not major differences but the Samsung HDD might be a safer choice and also provides 500GB more of storage space for just $10 more.

The WD drive requires I either use WD Align or find someone with Windows 7, then either have my drive in an enclosure or put it in their computer. Second, I would probably want to use wdidle3 to get the LCC numbers down. The Samsung is practically plug and play. I'm sure with tweaking, the WD Green is a decent drive, though.

technix

August 6, 2010 12:31 PM

Missed the sale on the Sammy! :( I didn't know the sale would end before the expiry date... ugh!

I'm wondering if I should take a chance on a WD10EARS. Sounds like a few ppl know what to do with these here! AKG, for one.

Is $60 a good deal for one? Thinking I might pull the trigger. I just want the cheapest price (price/gb) overall and I did download the wdidle3 DOS program if I need it. This drive will be used for Windows and storing files from Windows XP mostly and perhaps, Windows 7 (later). I'll be copying a lot of files from a laptop (XP), flash drive with various files (videos) and a desktop (XP). It's the alignment that needs to be done that allows for faster writing, right?